Intern Testimonials
A complex mix of emotions flowed throughout my body as we were driving to the Juneteenth Festival. I arrived in Cincinnati just hours earlier and already hit the ground by attending my first In Person Volunteer Recruitment event. That moment defined the start of my fellowship with the Organizing and Training department. I felt confidence and excited, but I also aware that I had no idea what was in store for me for the following ten weeks.
I soon discovered that the opportunity to grow as an organizer was not in the ten weeks, but rather in each and every day. Working with seasoned organizers on a daily basis afforded me access to plethora of knowledge and skills to absorb. To take full advantage of this situation, there was no time to put my mind of cruise control — I wanted to know how to get the job done right and how to do it even better next time.
There is no substitute for experience, and the Task Force knows this. Other fellowships and internships will teach their trade while assigning remedial tasks, and by doing so, they are going down the easy and safe [road]. By the Task Force giving us the opportunity to be an integral role in the campaign, they are essentially putting the trust in us that we will follow through — and that in itself is an honor. Furthermore, they are taking on the responsibility of guiding the fellows in a consistent manner in order to provide the support and education needed.
Six months since the end of the fellowship, I have come to understand that the growth I experienced was profound. I learned key skills necessary for this line of work. I learned key lessons to take to all future organizing. I learned where I am personally in order to keep building on my strengths while working to fix my weaknesses. Understanding how I grew in these individual fields gives a window into how much the fellowship has changed my life.
The experience in the fellowship made a profound, positive change in my life. The Task Force should be proud of hosting such a program.
— Kian Boloori, Summer 2006 Organizing & Training Fellow
During my summer 2005 internship with the Task Force, the majority of the work I performed consisted of writing press releases for the Creating Change Conference, including conducting the background research necessary to write them. Other duties included contacting California community centers, LGBT organizations, campuses, and other local organizations to encourage them to publicize the conference. Other areas of work included creating a Canadian queer media contact database to be used by the Task Force and preparing the text for a flyer for the spiritual track of the conference. I also researched information concerning lesbian health issues for potential releases in the month of October. And at the very end of the internship, I began pitching to the Bay Area press.
My experience as a Task Force intern was a very positive one. I enjoyed the work that I was doing immensely and also was very grateful for the opportunities. It was an amazing experience to be given the chance to perform tasks such as writing press releases and pitching stories to the media, and to be treated as a competent and trusted individual. I cannot say enough how much it meant to me that I was encouraged to build new skills and perform in areas with which I had previously been unfamiliar. It was enjoyable for me to be able to fuse interest in communications and media with the very important issue of LGBT rights. Everyone that I worked with was very helpful and friendly. It was a wonderful experience. I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
— Karen Gillo, Summer 2005 Creating Change Intern
Working as a Vaid fellow at the Task Force has been an invaluable experience. It gave me the chance to work on a variety of issues and policies relevant to the LGBT community. Most importantly, I am incredibly impressed by how the Vaid fellows are integrated with the permanent staff. At the Task Force, the fellows are given the chance to do substantial work and in turn are treated with the same amount of respect and trust that are given to permanent staff members. Having just moved to the city, working at the Task Force not only gave me a great summer work experience, but also gave me a chance to make great friends and get connected to New York's LGBT community.
— Jonathan Weiser, MPPA, Summer 2005 Vaid Fellow
Vaid fellows can expect their work to be substantive, instructive, and often illuminating. We are given equal measures autonomy and guidance; a Vaid fellow with some initiative can quickly learn to research and analyze a wide range of policy issues. Being immersed in the Policy Institute’s research naturally helps you stay current with LGBT politics and policies. Within two months of my fellowship, I had the opportunity to travel to our annual policy conference and present a workshop on a study of Asian Pacific American LGBT people, which I later co-authored with one of the policy analysts here. Last week, I represented the Task Force at a conference for eastern regional women of color and gave another workshop.The fellowship also gave me the opportunity to work with and among the brightest minds and kindest people in LGBT politics. The office is a community of motivated and talented people whose devotion to civil rights can only be described as inspirational. But why I’m blathering on in generic terms when I should just say what I mean: I sit thirty feet from Becca Ahuja, the smooth-operating organizer who can coax a slab of granite into voting for marriage equality, whose penchant for playing my favorite Pearl Jam anthems on her computer keeps me going every day. What a great place to work!
— Mandy Hu, Spring 2005 Vaid Fellow
I really enjoyed working at the Task Force. The Policy Institute is small, and it was a great team environment, where we all had an idea of the other work that was going on and how everything we were doing fit together. I was usually working on multiple projects at once, and I had the freedom to work independently, but also with a great deal of support from my supervisor and the other fellows when needed. Also, I am straight and it was a really valuable experience for me to work in an environment where I was in the minority but always felt comfortable and welcomed.
— Diana Brazzell, Summer 2004 Vaid Fellow
Working for the Policy Institute was an amazing experience. Finding a summer job where I could contribute substantively rather than making photocopies and coffee was very important to me, and I was not disappointed. During the summer, I contributed to journal articles and a major Task Force publication titled Black Same-Sex Households in the United States. Through my experiences, I really learned how a nonprofit think tank works, and especially how research is conducted, turned into policy recommendations and picked up by the media. Now that I'm back in graduate school, I find myself using the skills that I learned as a fellow. Working at the Task Force has convinced me that I want to work as a researcher in a nonprofit after I finish my degree.
— Somjen Frazer, Summer 2004 Vaid Fellow
Working as a Vaid Fellow with the Policy Institute was a rewarding experience. I was assigned a project as soon as I joined, and I was able to work on it from the beginning to the end. I assisting in updating the information about legislation on the same-sex marriage issue and prepared for the SAGE conference and the White House Conference on Aging (2005). I was involved in various activities in the office, and was exposed to valuable reading materials. My writing skills improved tremendously. As a result of last summer's excellent internship with PI, I am coming back as a Vaid fellow for the summer of 2005! — Priyanka Gupta, Summer 2004 Vaid Fellow
The opportunity to be a Vaid Fellow for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force was one of the most invaluable and rewarding experiences of my life. The Policy Institute is at the forefront of the queer rights movement conducting cutting-edge research about the unique needs and experiences of our diverse community and how those needs and experiences intersect with those of many Americans. Housed at the Policy Institute, the Vaid Fellowship gave me the opportunity to work side-by-side with some of the most prominent figures of our movement. Under their supervision and guidance, I gained a more holistic knowledge of the current political climate, social trends and attitudes, and most importantly, myself as a gay American and what I can do to create change.
— Adam Pederson-Doherty, Spring 2004 Vaid Fellow
